Biden coming to Chicago next week to push his COVID-19 vaccination mandate for businesses
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President Joe Biden, facing pressure to deal with the latest wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, is scheduled to come to Chicago on Wednesday to highlight his order that businesses with 100 or more workers require employees to be vaccinated or face weekly testing, the White House said Thursday.
The president has seen his popular support in polling decline in recent weeks, due partly to his handling of the latest COVID-19 surge and also because of his decisions that led to the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker has been a strong backer of the president’s actions to deal with COVID-19. Pritzker has mandated vaccinations and testing for educators, health care workers, college and university students and workers in congregate care settings, while also calling on the private sector to do more to require workers to get vaccinated.
Chicago-based United Airlines has implemented a vaccination requirement for its employees, and corporate workers for Chicago-based McDonald’s and Deerfield headquartered Walgreen’s also face similar mandates.
The White House offered no further details on Biden’s visit next week. In a statement, Pritzker said that he was “proud” to welcome Biden to Illinois, “the most vaccinated state in the Midwest, as we work together to encourage anyone on the fence about vaccination to get protected as soon as possible.”
Biden’s vaccination mandate for businesses was issued earlier this month through the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration and does not yet have an effective date. The order has faced opposition from many Republican governors who have warned of lawsuits to challenge the move. Nationally, Biden’s mandate would affect an estimated 80 million Americans.
The mandate reflects attempts by the Biden administration to deal with public resentment among the vaccinated toward those who remain unvaccinated despite the delta variant surge and the renewed pressure placed on hospitals and health care workers.
Biden’s order directs OSHA to develop a rule requiring large businesses to mandate vaccinations or subject employees to weekly testing with violations resulting in penalties of up to $14,000 per violation. The rule also will require those businesses to provide paid time off for workers to get vaccinated or to recover from the shot.
In addition to the private sector, Biden’s orders also require vaccinations for federal executive branch employees and contractors. Some federal health care workers, including those at the Department of Veterans Affairs, already must get vaccinated. Members of the U.S. military are also required to get vaccinated.
But even as Biden pushes mandatory vaccinations for big business, he also faces pressure to ramp up rapid coronavirus testing to further tamp down the spread. Testing manufacturers slowed supply when infections dropped in the spring and summer and now say it will take weeks to once again ramp up.
Biden’s visit comes as the latest COVID-19 surge, driven by the highly contagious delta variant, appears to be subsiding in Illinois.
State health officials Thursday reported 3,505 new confirmed and probable cases, bring the average number of daily cases to 3,155 over the past week. The latest surge peaked at an average of 4,440 daily cases during the week ending Sept. 4.
Hospitalizations also have begun to slow down, with a daily average of 1,979 COVID-19 patients filling hospital beds statewide during the week ending Wednesday. The daily average during the latest surge peaked at 2,304 patients for the week ending Sept. 9.
The health care system remains highly taxed in some parts of the state, however, with just one intensive care bed available as of Wednesday in a region spanning 20 southern Illinois counties.
As of Thursday, a little more than 64% of eligible Illinois residents — those 12 and older — have been fully vaccinated, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health, though vaccination rates vary widely by region.
A daily average of 18,920 doses have been administered over the past week, down from an average of 39,914 doses per day during the week ending Sept. 1.
Pritzker last week pushed back the deadline for state workers in prisons and other congregate settings to be fully vaccinated by more than a month, to Nov. 18.
Pritzker has made his handling of the pandemic a centerpiece for his reelection campaign. The four Republicans who have announced they will challenge him next year all oppose the vaccination, masking and other mitigation mandates imposed by the governor.
One Republican, Bull Valley businessman Gary Rabine, who has spread misinformation about the safety of the vaccines, also is a founding board member of the Job Creators Network, a conservative business group which has announced it planned to file a lawsuit to challenge Biden’s vaccination mandate.
“I endorse this lawsuit against Biden. We have been a strong voice against terrible regulations that kill jobs but this mandate by Biden might be the most aggressive, freedom crushing bill that we have ever seen. If we allow this, what freedom will we give up next?” Rabine said in a statement.
Rabine has said that he previously had COVID-19 and does not need to be vaccinated, contrary to the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.